Subject: Re: [permaculture] Re Wood Ashes as a soil amendment
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:50:18 -0500
How does this compare to applying charcoal (a la terra preta) ?
Presumably TP is both safe and sustainable to soil biota, as they
were doing it for years and ended up with good soil.<SNIP!>
Charcoal is produced at a lower heat than ash is. The charcoal
(rather than ash) that is produced by lower heat has a lot of porous
structure to it and, apparently, is coated with a carbon that is a
sugar food for microbes. In this fashion, charcoal both feeds and
shelters a microbial population. Ash just doesn't do that. Even
better, charcoal-wise, charcoal has remained an effective soil
builder in pt soils for up to 2000 years (actually documented) while
ash is consumed in just a few months. Still, my soil science friends
tell me that FRESH ash contributed more to the performance of plants
than can be predicted by a lab analysis of the ingredients of ash.
-Allan